BARROWS — Familiar faces, and new ones made trips to the winners podium at North Central Speedway Saturday night.

One newcomer was Travis Saurer, who ran his first night at NCS this season, due to a rain out at his usual Saturday night track in Alexandria.

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For Saurer, his win came at a track that he doesn’t visit very often and has had little success at.

“I usually don’t do very well here,” said Saurer. “I’ve done well at features at other tracks. I have 20 Midwest Modified feature wins this year, but I’ve never won a feature here. Alexandria got rained out so we came here and I started sixth. It wasn’t working on the bottom so I moved to the top.

“Once I got the lead, I knew that Shane (Sabraski) and Dan (Ebert) and those guys would be coming. I kept getting a good run out of turn two on Shane and when we came down to less then five laps, I figured that I better move down and protect at that point and it worked out.”

Saurer does get the opportunity to run against Sabraski and Ebert at other tracks. He said it helps in knowing what the other drivers tendencies are.

“I drive with Shane maybe once a month, but I race with Dan weekly in Fergus Falls,” Saurer said. “Those guys run hard. One little slip up and Shane would have checked out on me tonight.”

Sabraski finished second with Dan Ebert finishing just out of the top three spots. After Saturday, Ebert holds a five -point lead over Sabraski in the season points chase.

Gary Ohnstad Jr. has been a model of consistency the last few years in the Pure Stock class. However, there are some nights where it’s just not your night. That happened to Ohnstad Jr. July 9 as he had to leave the race with a flat tire. That hurt him in a tight points chase with Jonny Moe.

“The (points) race was super close until last week when I left with a flat tire,” Ohnstad Jr. said.” I definitely don’t want him beating me. Jonny used to pit for me for the first two years and now he is getting into the driving part and he’s doing really well for his second year driving.”

Ohnstad Jr. is proud of his former teammate, but he still wants to beat him on a nightly basis. Ohnstad Jr. started from row four in the feature and was able to work his way to the front on lap four. Moe joined him in the top three with seven laps left in the race. Moe then got by Dale Boser to move into second place with six laps left.

“I started seventh and was able to pass a few cars right away,” Ohnstad Jr. said. “It took me a few more laps to get up to the front. Jonny caught me and we had a good run at the end.”

Moe took the lead away from Ohnstad Jr. with three laps left, but Ohnstad Jr. stayed close and was able to take it back on the last lap and get the win. With the victory, Ohnstad Jr. stands 11 points behind Moe in the season points chase.

Brandon Mehrwerth took the win in the Hornet feature and Ashley Mehrwerth made it a brother-sister sweep with a win in the Outlaw Hornet feature.

Tim Johnson came from nowhere on lap five of the Street Stock feature and stormed past both Mark Johnson and Allen Brehmer to take the first place trophy. Johnson widened a commanding lead over Mark Johnson and Christina Wollak in the season points race.

Shane Sabraski kept the bounty on his head in the A-Modified class for another week with a win in the feature event. Sabraski came from row four to get the win with Ebert finishing in second place. Sabraski holds an 18-point advantage over Ebert for the season.

And Super Stock points leader Dave Read was not able to finish the feature event which gave Shane Sabraski and Seth Kramer a chance to move up.

However, it was Dan Ebert, driving in DJ Dondelinger’s car, who got the win with Derek Sweet finishing second and Max Dondelinger finishing in third. Read still holds a 57-point lead over Sabraski for the season points chase.

After graduating high school in 2004, I attended Central Lakes College in Staples, MN for 2 years where I got a diploma in Communication Art and Design. I then transfered up to Bemidji State University in, you guessed it, Bemidji, MN. In the spring of 2009, I graduated from BSU. Then in the fall of 2009 I got a job at Echo Publishing, a sister company to the Brainerd Dispatch.